1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for commissioning, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to systems and methods for commissioning addressable lighting systems.
2. Background Art
Technology for lighting systems has substantially increased in complexity and capability over the past decade. Traditionally, lights simply provided illumination via simple wiring of light switches and dimmers. More recently, additional functionality has been incorporated into lighting systems to provide additional features and, more importantly, to provide energy conservation. For example, it might be desirable to dim or turn off certain lights to set certain scenes depending on the specific conditions, such as the day of the week, time of day, or even season of the year. In addition, it might be desirable to dim or turn off unnecessary lights, even dim or extinguish only selected lights in a room, to conserve energy.
Digitally addressable lighting is slowly emerging as a popular means for controlling complete lighting environments for a wide variety of different applications. Individual control of each lamp enables the end user to precisely deliver the correct amount of light when and where it is required. Managing the light in this manner potentially allows for a massive reduction in global energy consumption due to lighting. Industrial environments can conserve the total energy required for lighting while actually increasing light quality in certain areas at given times by using modern lighting control systems.
A complete digital dimming system includes the dimming ballasts, in the case of lamps which require a ballast, and a digital control unit for converting information received from a network connection to the communication protocol required by the micro-controller in each ballast. Applications for such systems include building management or studio lighting where it is desired to control a single lamp, or groups of lamps, for conserving energy, performing lamp maintenance or creating precision lighting effects.
Digital dimming ballasts typically include an EMI filter, rectifier, power factor correction, and ballast output stage. The digital ballast also includes a micro-controller for sending and receiving information digitally. The micro-controller functions include storing the ballast address, receiving user instructions, setting the dim reference for the ballast control, receiving status information from the ballast control and sending status information back to the user. The digital ballast potentially allows for complete and precise control of an entire lighting environment.
In the past, the analog 1-10V control interface was the most common industry standard for controlling ballasts. However, the 1-10V control interface has been shown to be inflexible and is slowly being replaced by a new standard known as the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface-protocol or DALI-protocol or just DALI.
DALI is an international standard that has been described in IEC 60929 which establishes the electronic ballast performance requirement. DALI has been designed in a joint effort by many control equipment manufacturers. DALI is advantageous because of its simple wiring control lines and because it allows control over single units (for example, lamps). In addition, the status of each unit may be queried and ascertained.
DALI is currently designed for a maximum of sixty-four single units having individual addresses, a maximum of sixteen groups, and a maximum of sixteen scenes. The “intelligence” has been decentralized to the ballasts, i.e., the values of many set points and lighting values are stored within the individual ballasts. All functions are carried out locally.
Each ballast connected to a DALI controlled system has its own address. An address stands for the definite designation of a unit within a DALI-system. This way each ballast can be contacted individually, although it is connected to a DALI system-line like all the other units. The address assignment, for example, must be effected when the system is put into operation. All units of a system can be contacted at the same time by way of a broadcast.
A differentiation is made between individual addresses and group addresses. Sixty-four individual addresses exist in the DALI-system. Thus, one or several control units can contact individually, i.e. a maximum of sixty-four ballasts. Each ballast may also be part of a maximum of sixteen groups. The plurality of control units can be part of a larger network. In theory, the number of individual ballasts on a network may be unlimited. The DALI control bus comprises two-wires. Any wiring topology can be used, such a line, star or mixed.
One drawback to using the DALI system occurs during the commissioning process. As used herein, the commissioning process entails identifying the physical location of each ballast and its respective address or ID. Typically, all ballasts have an associated address stored by the manufacturer during production. When the DALI system is first activated, each ballast registers with a control unit its respective address. It will be appreciated that the physical location of each ballast may not be known, because there may be up to sixty-four ballasts connected to the control unit. The ballasts may be spread across different rooms, floors or even buildings. In addition, where multiple control units are being used, it may not even be possible to tell which ballasts are controlled by which control units.
In the past, there have been primarily two methods used to commission a DALI system. The first method has been to keep track of the physical location where each ballast is installed in a structure and record its location and the corresponding ballast address. This method has severe drawbacks. First, this method requires that the addresses be printed on the outside of the ballast. Some manufacturers of ballasts may not do this. Secondly, in large scale operations, this may be overly cumbersome and error prone. Next, often the electricians installing the ballasts are not the same individuals who will be initiating the DALI system requiring a high level of cooperation. Finally, the biggest drawback is that even if the addresses and locations are correctly recorded during installation, the DALI system has a randomizing feature that reassigns addresses randomly to each ballast thereby, if such a randomizing feature is purposefully or inadvertently invoked, negating any recorded information.
The second method entails first initiating the DALI system thereby allowing each ballast to register its address with the control unit. Then, a person physically disconnects each lamp, typically by climbing a ladder to reach the lamp, controlled by the system one by one. The control unit will indicate which address has a disconnected lamp. In this manner, the physical location associated with each address can be ascertained. It will be appreciated that in large scale operations, physically disconnecting and reconnecting each lamp one by one is cumbersome and time consuming.
Despite the advantages of known DALI systems, improvements are still being sought. For example, the current known methods of commissioning has significant drawbacks in that it is overly cumbersome and time consuming.
The available methods and devices are thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present invention. The present invention minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the structures and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.